Contemplative Bible Reading

Matthew 9:36 (New Living Translation)

When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus saw the crowds. He felt compassion. Let’s examine the dictionary and try to understand the amazing meaning of this sentence and how it describes our Savior.

Compassion is a sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.

Sympathetic means to have the same feelings of other persons. You are angry and I am angry; we are sympathetic.

The crowds were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus felt the same way—confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Huh? Wait, Jesus confused and helpless? Yes. Jesus was dumped on earth with … folks just like us. Yikes. What a mess. Jesus was God and Jesus was human with all our human faults, confusion, and helplessness. Jesus was a Jew living in a nation occupied by a foreign army and ruled by foreign rulers who used the Jews for fun and profit. You had a bad day recently? Compare it to Jesus’ everyday life.

And the other part of Jesus’ compassion is that Jesus had a desire to relieve the suffering of the crowds. Did Jesus have the free will to avoid the crucifixion? Folks have discussed that for a few centuries. Jesus, however, didn’t avoid a painful death. He lived and died. He relieved the suffering of the crowds he saw and the suffering of all mankind since.

Sure, we all have bad days. Most of my bad days don’t compare to the bad days of ancestors who lived in the 1200s etc., but I have bad days. Jesus had bad days. Jesus has felt everything that I have felt. Jesus has wanted to relieve my bad days. Jesus did so much more than that. Thank you God.